earlyretirementextreme.comEarly Retirement Extreme a combination of simple living

ERE About me ERE book Frequently Asked Questions Forums Wiki Early Retirement Extreme — a combination of simple living, anticonsumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, resilience, and applied capitalism The Mini-minimum wardrobe Published on May 22nd, 2020 Posted by Jacob in How to , Strategy 23 Comments after this if ad is up If you’re new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years. The wiki page gives a good summary of the principles of the strategy . The key to success is to run your personal finances much like a business, thinking about assets and inventory and focusing on efficiency and value for money. Not just any business but a business that’s flexible, agile, and adaptable. Conversely most consumers run their personal finances like an inflexible money-losing anti-business always in danger on losing their jobs to the next wave of downsizing. Here’s more than a hundred online journals from people, who are following the ERE strategy tailored to their particular situation (age, children, location, education, goals, ...). Increasing their savings from the usual 5-15% of their income to tens of thousands of dollars each year or typically 40-80% of their income, many accumulate six-figure net-worths within a few years. Since everybody’s situation is different (age, education, location, children, goals, ...) I suggest only spending a brief moment on this blog, which can be thought of as my personal journal, before delving into the forum journals and looking for the crowd’s wisdom for your particular situation. If you enjoy the blog , also consider the book which is much better organized and more complete . You can read the first chapter for free or see the reviews ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , A , B , C , D , E , F , G , H , I , J , K , L , M , N , O , P , Q , R , S , T , U , V , W , Z ). Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS. See updates and links on the facebook page , join the forums , and look for tactics on the ERE wiki . Here’s a list of all the ERE blog posts . Previously , I have a advocated having about 12 items of socks, underwear and shirts based on the laundry cycle of the typical toploading laundry mat. This works well, because it allows you do a cold and a warm (60C) wash at the same time every two weeks or so. This works well for a single person. If you’re a couple, you can divide by 2. However, realize that the size of the wardrobe is strictly limited by how often laundry needs to be done. In the past couple of weeks I have verified the obvious. When I was packaging my luggage for my trip back to my folks, I asked them how often they did laundry. All the time, they replied (smaller washing machine and three adults in the household). Since I would be number 4, I just divided the magic number 12 with 4 and so I brought 3 pairs of underwear, 3 t-shirts, 2 pairs of pants, and 1.5 sweaters (a thin and a thick one) including the ones I am wearing. The desire to use a washing machine efficiently generates a need to own more clothes. If you handwash or otherwise is able to wash really small loads, it is possible to make do with just one set. Simply wash your clothes every day before you go to bed and let it dry overnight. This is possible for quick drying fabrics which sadly are rarely natural fibers. Originally posted 2009-10-31 02:38:30. The art of waiting Published on May 21st, 2020 Posted by Jacob in Philosophy , Strategy 8 Comments For someone who is not working a 9–5 job, time takes a very different meaning than for someone who is still on the clock. Moving from one frame of mind to another can be very challenging indeed. Since the mechanical clock was invented and work was scheduled—about 300 years ago—we have gotten so used to dividing time into equal segments that this has become almost invisible. I was reminded of this yesterday when we were discussing the weather forecast. We consider forecasting important first and foremost in terms of the timing. What will the weather be like on Thursday? We consider this vastly more important than the fact that soon it will rain” or temperatures will hit 100F.” Now, it so happens that (as far as I know) timing a dynamic system like the weather is much harder than getting the ranges right. If we weren’t so focused on looking at the clock, we would find the weather forecast more useful. To wit, from a retired or time-independent point of view, all I need to know is whether I should get my ice-skates out or whether it’s time to bring out the sunscreen. If it rains today, I’ll simply go tomorrow instead; no particular need to plan a given day. A similar perspective on time is found in the world of investing. It is often said that market timing is impossible. This may or may not be true. From my perspective, it doesn’t matter. I simply need to find a business which is stable and pays a dividend or a business that is undervalued. Who is to say when the market realizes this? It may take a day or it may take a year. All I know is the range—the climate” so to speak; I don’t care about the weather.” Another way of thinking about this is that certain things operate incompressed time .” This is the case for the stock market, where we have long periods of no activity” which is interrupted by bursts of much activity”. The long periods of no activity can be considered compressed as the long interval contains as much information as a short burst of frantic activity. The same holds for creativity. If work is not routine, it is likely characterized by short periods of frantic activity (like writing this blog post) and long periods of inactivity. This, however, only appears to be the case for someone who plots activity as a function of linear time. If it is plotted as a function of neural activity, the processing is more likely to be constant . The apparent inactivity of the creative person is merely due to not observing the (re)building phase of new ideas. The inactivity of the stock market is due to ineffective or discontinuous information distribution. Time-perception is a curious little meme. It can be fairly developed—some people will be able to tell you, fairly accurately, what time it is without looking at the clock. I think that the elimination of time[-perception] ranks as high as the elimination of the ego in terms of personal development. It will eliminate waiting”, where waiting” is just mapping activity to time an being annoyed by the apparent lack of activity. Waiting is simply due to plotting the wrong variable. A variable that has been trained into most people all their lives. Originally posted 2010-09-06 15:37:27. Pandora and the box of unknown wants Published on May 21st, 2020 Posted by Jacob in How to 10 Comments If you have a high speed (DSL or faster) internet connection and you like music but find yourself frustrated with radio stations playing the same music over and over again head over to Pandora . Pandora has a team of musicians analyzing songs for tone, sound, tonality, etc. I believe they call it the DNA of the music. You then enter a song or artist you like and Pandora compares their DNA to other tunes or artists with similar qualities. Best of all, it starts streaming songs to you for free . You can then rate them thumbs up” or thumbs down” to teach the database what you like. This does not seem to work too well for me, but then I just enter another song I like and things get back on track. This is a really great way to learn about new artists and best of all, it’s free – well as free as your internet connection anyway. Now the down side is that Pandora , due to licensing restrictions, work more like a radio station than a CD. For instance, you can not replay a song and there is only a limited ability towhen a song is...